Mccormick Place Deal Gains

Thompson Ally Eases Demands

November 02, 1985|By Tim Franklin and Daniel Egler, Chicago Tribune.

SPRINGFIELD — Gov. James Thompson and legislative leaders inched closer to compromises Friday on a bailout of McCormick Place and a new cigarette tax, but the only action they took was leaving town for the weekend.

Senate Minority Leader James Philip (R., Wood Dale) extended an olive branch in the partisan standoff over McCormick Place and dropped his demand that Republican Thompson be given control of the board governing the embattled convention center on Chicago`s lakefront.

At the same time, House Speaker Michael Madigan (D., Chicago) lent his backing to a new cigarette-tax increase of 8 cents a pack, backing off his position that Thompson had not proved the need for the levy.

Until Friday, Madigan was the only remaining top Democrat in the legislature still adamantly opposed to the tax, which Thompson has been pushing to pay for newly passed school-reform measures.

Despite the lumbering movement toward compromises, however, there were no assurances that legislators would be able to break the logjam that has tied up the key issues of the fall session, which had been scheduled to conclude Thursday.

``They may not be resolved today, they may not be resolved next week,``

Madigan said before attending the last of two meetings between Thompson and the four top legislative leaders.

After the second session, leaders said they had agreed only to go home for the weekend and to reconvene the legislature Monday.

Besides McCormick Place and a cigarette-tax increase, the legislature still has not acted on proposed tax incentives for rebuilding the fire-damaged Arlington Park Race Track, on a measure to open Illinois to regional interstate banking and on aid for the state`s farmers.

Although Philip backed off his insistence that the state govern McCormick Place, he repeated his ultimatum that there will be no new money for the annex hall unless Madigan drops his oppostion to tax breaks for the Arlington Park track.

Unless Philip or Madigan blinks, those intertwined issues could be bottled up indefinitely.

McCormick Place officials are seeking $60 million from the legislature to cover cost overruns on the planned $252 million annex to the lakefront exposition complex. The owners of Arlington Park, located in the GOP-dominated northwest suburbs, have demanded tax breaks on state and local levies before they rebuild.

On McCormick Place, Thompson said he offered a compromise that represents a ``step forward`` in the weeks-long dispute between himself and Chicago Mayor Harold Washington over who will govern the exposition center.

Under the proposal, representation on the McCormick Place board would be evenly divided between state and city control, with Thompson appointing three members and Washington three. The new interim board would exist until June, 1987, when the legislature could restructure the panel.

In addition, Thompson would appoint a trustee to act as a general manager in overseeing construction of the annex.